Little Guys Stick Together
by Freida Right
Summary: A string of short scenes, concerning a certain Ralad and a certain Dread Gnome running around and acting very, very silly...
1. The Staring Contest

This thing is on something of an impulse which I refuse to help any longer. It's been on my mind for a while and darn it, I'm gonna write it! You see, Gla-Thon is fantastic, and Manus is adorable, and they both make me smile a little more than I should at my age. But the idea that they are probably hommies makes me short circuit from an overload of possibilities and silliness.

No, I am not saying that I ship them together. I'm just saying, if they teamed up, they could cause a lot of hilarious mischief. And, both being short, non-human, and blue, I imagine they get along quite nicely.

So basically—as the story summary says—this is just a series of short scenes I've thought of, concerning Gla-Thon and Manus running around and acting very, very silly. Because this fandom needs a jolt of humor, I think. ;D

_Hint: I am mixing the anime and the many, __many__ books for this one. I need Glock alive, but I also need Lindal's fabulous self. Imagine that two or three years have passed since Sister of the South. Also imagine that these scenes happen only happen when the tribes representatives gather to hang out and celebrate stuff, as they must. ;) _

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_The Staring Contest_

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It had started off innocently, as it might have been expected, because it started with a simple staring contest. However, said contest was between Doom and Glock, and at Gla-Thon's request, so someone should have thought to be a little nervous, at least.

The busty little gnome had insisted that she was only curious, and only meant for the contest to last a minute or two. But the two men were, of course, extremely competitive. Glock had just insisted on a sixth round when Manus had wandered in and become interested.

"What are the rules?" he had asked. "Laughing, or blinking?"

"Blinking," Gla-Thon had answered over her shoulder.

Even more interested, Manus had tossed a gold coin on the table, distracting the competitors and ruining the round.

"In that case, I bet one gold coin on Glock," the Ralad man had grinned.

Ignoring Doom's indignant glare, Gla-Thon had grinned back and pulled a coin of her own from her pocket and thrown it on the table.

"Then my gold is on Doom."

"You're on!"

With that, the two had pulled up chairs and sat with their elbows propped on the dining hall table, waiting expectantly for their comrades to restart the round. Peeved that their friends were betting against them, Doom and Glock stared at them in disbelief; however, they were both determined to win the contest now, and quickly turned their glares back on each other.

Now that there was money on the table, the round lasted much longer than the previous ones. After two minutes had passed, Gla-Thon began to grow impatient.

"Blink," she hissed at Glock, poking his forehead. "Blink, Glock, blink. Make me a rich woman."

"Gla-Thon, you are a Dread Gnome," Doom growled, still without blinking. "You have more gold in your pocket right now than we have in the royal treasury."

"But I haven't won any of it from Manus," she drawled, "so it hardly counts, now does it?"

Doom grumbled to himself, but still didn't blink.

Abruptly, Glock looked away and down at his small friends with a cunning smile.

"You know what I'd like to see?" he demanded cleverly. "I'd like to see the two of you have a go at it."

Manus and Gla-Thon stared at him in confusion, wondering if the contest had been won, and by whom. Doom began to chuckle at them.

"I'd like to see that, too," he agreed. "I'd even put my money on Gla-Thon, since she was kind enough to put her money on me."

It seemed that the contest had been abandoned, and that neither of them had won the wager. Annoyed but intrigued, the two exchanged places with their friends at the table. Manus and Gla-Thon now sat across from each other, one facing the other squarely, while Doom and Glock sat beside each other to watch.

The new contest might have been completely friendly, until the two men threw their gold down on the table. Then they sat with their arms resting on the table, watching their small friends expectantly, teasing them in the best way they could think of.

And now it was personal. Both determined to win, they began to stare intensely at each other.

This continued for about an hour. Over the course of that hour, the rest of their friends drifted into the dining room to see what was happening, ask the rules, place their bets, and then stand around to marvel at the sight of a Ralad and a Dread Gnome locked in a staring match.

Though they never took their eyes off each other for a second, they were very aware of their former companions standing around them, making comments and lightly teasing each other. Doom and Glock were still siitting at the table, gawking at them in complete disbelief. Zeean and Fardeep stood together, shaking their heads occasionally; Steven stood beside them, hiding a smile behind his hand. Lindal and Barda stood to the side, watching a little too closely, because they had both bet enthusiastically on the contest. Every now and then, Barda would whisper to his wife to ask what she had planned for supper; Lindal would hush him and warn not to ask her again, because she had no idea and was too rapt by the contest to think about it.

Though their friends had a lot invested in them by now, it was clear that they were growing bored with the waiting. For themselves, Manus and Gla-Thon were exhausted. Their eyes were dry, and felt like sandpaper. Staring as intently at each other as they were, they could see how red their eyes had become over the last hour. Both of their faces felt ridged and stiff. They both wanted the contest to come to an end. But neither of them was willing to blink and end the thing.

This thought occurred to them at the same time, and they scowled at each other across the table.

"Blink," Manus grumbled.

"No, you blink," Gla-Thon grumbled back.

Manus scowled harder at her, and leaned across the table. "No, _you_ blink," he demanded, raising his voice in desperation.

Gla-Thon also leaned across the table, practically into his face, and shot him a look that could melt solid bone.

"No, _you_ blink."

"No, _you_ blink!"

"_No, you blink, dammit!"_

Somewhere nearby, they heard Zeean sigh tiredly.

"Manus, Gla-Thon, this is just sad," they heard her say.

At the same time, they noticed Fardeep nudging her gently. "I'd put two silvers on Gla-Thon, though," he said quietly, just loudly enough to be heard.

Zeean sighed again and hung her head slightly in defeat. "I shall take you up on that, my friend," she agreed politely.

"We should have brought snacks," Glock exclaimed suddenly, throwing his hands in the air. "This is getting tiresome."

Linda's face lit up at the idea, and she turned to look at her husband. "Snacks would have been a fantastic idea," she said loudly. "Barda, why didn't you think of it?"

Manus and Gla-Thon couldn't see how Barda reacted, because he was behind them. Knowing him well, though, they imagined that he was rolling his eyes, unable to see how the problem was his fault.

But it paled to utter insignificance to the fact that he had bet three silver coins on Manus, and his wife had placed three on Gla-Thon, and neither competitor was willing to let anyone down.

"What on earth is going on in here?"

While the two didn't turn to look with everyone else, the voice was unmistakable. It was Jasmine's, confused and disbelieving. They could picture her with her hands planted severely on her hips, silently demanding an explanation. And they could easily imagine that Lief must be with her. Alerted by their friends yelling at each other, of course they had come along to see what was going on.

Barda suddenly cleared his throat. "Just a staring contest," he said simply, not looking away.

"What are the rules?" came Lief's voice, curious but also nervous. "Laughing or blinking?"

"Blinking," everyone answered at the same time.

"How long has this been going on?" Jasmine demanded, possibly concerned by the pile of coins in the middle of the table. Everyone was silent, looking around at each other, expecting someone to have an answer to the queen's very good question. It felt like they were all waking from the same dream.

After this moment of stunned silence, Steven fished a pocket watch from his coat and checked it. The face he made was halfway between alarm and amusement.

"Why, it's been nearly an hour since I came in," he said with a nervous laugh. "My, how time can fly when one is having fun…"

Realizing at once what this meant or Manus and Gla-Thon, the king and queen groaned in annoyance and began shooing their friends away from the table.

"This contest is over," LIef announced loudly. "Everyone pick up your coins, no one's won anything, it's just _over_."

Somewhat relived to have been released, Manus and Gla-Thon moved to blink for the first time in more than an hour.

To their shock, they couldn't do this. So hard they had stared at each other, and for so long, it was like they had sealed their eyes open permanently. They couldn't even move their eyes to look around. While their friends disappointedly milled around, they gaped at each other in speechless horror.

Seeing their hesitation, Jasmine turned to them. "Manus, Gla-Thon, the contest is over. Now blink, for the love of all things!"

"I'm trying," Gla-Thon mumbled, focusing all her strength into forcing her eyes shut, and failing.

"Me too," Manus added, gripping the table in concentration and fear.

"I think our eyes are stuck…"

There was another stunned silence. Apparently, none of the heroes had ever encountered something quite so ridiculous before. True to their natures, Lindal and Glock began to laugh so hard that they nearly fell over.

"Can someone get us a medic?" Manus squeaked, mostly in Lief's direction. "Please?"

Lief groaned in aggravation, running his fingers through his hair, possibly so he didn't use them to strangle any of his friends. Then he turned and walked out, calling for his mother to come and help him.

"I'd still like to know who won," Doom grumbled. "I had five gold coins on the table, and was looking forward to the payoff."

"Who cares who won?" Gla-Thon snapped at him. "We can't close our eyes!"

Jasmine swatted her father over the head, and then plucked five coins off the table.

"I can't believe you," she said, thrusting the coins into his hand. "All of you, just take your money and get out!

Lindal sighed deeply as she picked her money out of the pile. "That's a pity. With winnings like that, we could have _bought_ supper."


	2. Single Ladies

So, I go to add characters to the story stats, and it turns out that Manus isn't listed for some reason. You beautiful people can bet your collective behinds that this will be fixed soon. _Very_ soon…

This next one is blatantly based on something else, but it was too funny to resist. ;D

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_Single Ladies_

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Gla-Thon was annoyed. The small group of Dread Gnomes who had come to Del this year happened to include all three of the boys trying to court her. The trip each year was supposed to be her vacation. It was supposed to be her chance to see all her old friends again. And normally, her own people left her that space.

Instead, three of the clingiest and most desperate of the Gnomes were with her this year, and refused to leave her in any kind of peace. And it left her open to all sort of teasing from her friends. Gla-Thon was charming and quite pretty, as Dread Gnomes went, and her companions all loved her dearly. But she was also an independent and strong willed woman. It was hard for people to picture her on someone's arm.

She had already wondered several times if Fa-Glin was playing some kind of prank on her, by including these boys in the group. She wondered it again, and wondered what she had done to deserve it, as she finally stood alone with some of her real friends. They were passing around a bottle of wine—cleverly smuggled from the palace cellar, via secret passage—which quickly found its way into her hands.

"I can't stand these boys," she grumbled, drinking a little more than a fair share of the wine, and then passing it to Manus, who was on her right. "I don't know how I'm supposed to hide from them for the rest of the week. It's bad enough at home."

Doom smirked down at her, always happy to tease her some more. "You really should think about finding a good man and settling down, though. If you wait much longer, all the good ones will be gone."

In response, Gla-Thon scoffed, crossed her arms, and stuck out her considerable chest. "No. I shall never married," she announced. "I will ride off into the sunset all by myself, thank you very much."

Barda chuckled lightly at her enthusiasm, as if he didn't believe her. "And what do you suppose you will be riding on?" he asked.

At first, Gla-Thon couldn't answer him—the only beast she had ever ridden was a Kin, and she had since discovered, being a rather short creature, that she had no head for heights.

Seeing her obvious dilemma, Manus dropped the mostly empty bottle on the ground, and then knelt without warning to scoop Gla-Thon onto his shoulders.

"She can ride on me," he said helpfully. "I could run like this for days!"

Gla-Thon laughed in amusement and triumph, and Manus began to march purposefully out of the courtyard.

"That's right," she proclaimed as he carried her off. "I shall stay single forever, and let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen on Manus' mighty shoulders, firing arrows into the sunset!"

They were clearly having a wonderful time. Doom and Barda stared after them in perfectly utter confusion.

"I'm not even going to ask what just happened," Doom muttered after a moment.

Meanwhile, Barda had picked up the empty bottle and was looking it over suspiciously. "What the heck was in this…?"


	3. Two Little Bears

And suddenly, this came to me like lightning out of the blue. Anna and Ursa may make appearances in….. Other things…..

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_Two Little Bears_

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So, there stood Manus and Gla-Thon on one of the castle walls, looking over a booby trap there that had malfunctioned. While everyone was around that year, Manus had agreed to fix it, and had hauled his impressive chest of tools up the wall to make the repair. Gla-Thon had gone with him, because they hadn't finished their conversation, and also Manus was much more fun to be around than Glock.

They had been there all morning, and eventually agreed to take a short break around midday. It was the lunch hour, and they were both hungry. Leaving most of Manus' tools neatly scattered on the wall, they strolled down toward the kitchen.

That stroll was leisurely and uneventful, for most of the way. And then they crossed paths with Lief and Barda, who were stalking down the same hallway in the different direction, looking as if they were hunting for something, and very irritated. Seeing their small friends, the two men looked relieved and slightly hopeful.

"I'm glad we met you," Lief said impatiently, rushing to meet them. "Have you seen Anna and Ursa anywhere?"

"No one has seen them since this morning," Barda growled, worried in spite of himself. "We've searched this palace from top to bottom, and we simply can't find them anywhere!"

Manus did a poor job of stifling a laugh. "You've misplaced those two _again_? This is the third time this week! How hard can it be to lose such a loud pair of girls?"

"They can be alarmingly quiet when it's time for their lessons," Lief grumbled.

Gla-Thon chuckled and shook her head. "All children are the same, that way. I certainly was. I'm sorry, but we haven't seen them. Manus and I have been on the wall all this time. But we will certainly keep our eyes open for them."

Barda nodded his thanks. "If you do happen to find them, drag them to the courtyard. Their mothers are waiting there for them."

Happy to help, but always prepared to tease Barda for his very prestigious title, they both gave him a stiff salute. It was so out of their characters, it was hard to tell if they were being serious or not. Confused, Barda made a face and backed away a bit.

"I hate it when you do that," he growled. "It makes me wonder if you're up to something."

"Don't worry," Gla-Thon insisted. "Of course you can trust us."

Barda just hummed doubtfully, frowning at her suspiciously. Pleased with the look on his face, she turned to the king.

"Come, now, Lief," she said brightly, planting her hands on her hips. "Tell him that he can trust us."

Lief made the same doubtful humming sound, his frown only slightly less. It had been a while since she had seen him so annoyed.

"Just…" Lief began, and then seemed to change his choice of words as he turned to go on his way. "If you see our daughters, take them to the courtyard, and don't let them trick you into letting them go. Anna can be… Persuasive."

"And Ursa bites," Barda added over his shoulder.

Manus and Gla-Thon wondered over all this as they continued on their own way. Neither of them knew the little princess or her rather tall companion as well as they would have liked. All they really knew of Anna and Ursa was that they were loud, clever, lightning fast, and deceptively cute. The two were inseparable, as well—they were only ever apart whenever Ursa went with her mother to the eastern coast.

Apparently, the girls also hated their lessons, and had therefore become very good at hiding. Manus wondered if perhaps they had discovered the network of secret passages hidden within the walls, and were learning to navigate them under everyone's noses. He inwardly hoped this was so, because in that case there was much he might be able to learn from them. On the other hand, they were six and seven years old. And he reasoned, if he had discovered a secret tunnel system at that age, he would have used it mostly to steal sweets from the kitchen.

Only half an hour later, the two returned to the wall. Having not seen the missing girls, they had mostly forgotten to keep their eyes open for them. In fact, when they returned to the wall, Manus was more concerned with his tools. Certainly, they had been left where they lay, but he had left them in a certain order. It seemed like someone had tramped that way while he had been gone, and scattered his ordered tools around haphazardly.

Fuming and grumbling to himself, Manus knelt to pick his tools up. "Who would do something like this? Anyone with a pair of eyes would have seen that I placed these here on purpose. It's as if someone deliberately made a mess of my things!"

Gla-Thon knelt beside him to help, and paused as she picked up a wrench. She looked it over, and then frowned. "Manus? I don't remember you pulling this thing out."

She held out the wrench for Manus to see, and he frowned, also. "Neither do I. I don't think I even need that for this project…"

Still thinking little of it, they finished gathering his tools back into some semblance of order. Manus took the wrench, along with a pair of pliers and a pick axe which he also didn't remember taking out, and went to put them away.

"How on earth could I have misplaced these?" he wondered, opening the lid of the chest. "After all, it isn't as if—"

All at once, his question was answered. As he opened the tool chest, Manus and Gla-Thon jumped with surprise to find two little girls huddled side by side inside it. The larger of the two was raven haired, with deliberately defiant hazel eyes; the smaller girl's blonde hair was wild and unbrushed, and her green eyes were instantly recognizable. Upon being discovered, the two stared up in similar surprise, and then offered a pair of innocent, sheepish grins.

They looked so remarkably like their fathers in that moment, it completely robbed Manus of words. But Gla-Thon was not fazed, and leaned down to peer into the chest.

"Anna, Ursa, what are you doing in there?" she demanded. "People have been looking everywhere for you!"

"Shh," Ursa pleaded, holding a finger to her lips. "We've been hiding all over the place for hours, and our das _still_ haven't found us." It sounded as if she had lost a tooth recently, because she kept whistling slightly as she spoke.

Anna giggled beside her. "We'll never have to go back to our lessons, if we keep it up," she said triumphantly.

Recovering from his start, Manus shook his head and held up his misplaced tools. "You took these out of the chest, didn't you," he guessed.

Ursa shrugged. "We had to make room. And the axe was poking into Anna's shoulder and making her cry, so I got rid of it." Anna nodded vigorous agreement, looking at her friend with admiration.

Gla-Thon crossed her arms, unimpressed. "You know, your fathers are going distracted looking for you. They said they've searched this whole palace."

The girls shifted uneasily at the mention of their fathers, and the thought of how they would be punished if they were found. Then Ursa pouted and folded her own arms. "Well, they aren't so great at finding things, then, are they?"

"Your mothers were also looking for you," Manus said gently. "They're waiting for you down in the courtyard. Why don't we go see them?"

This time, the girls shook their head, looking absolutely terrified.

"The mums are even worse!" Anna squeaked. "They'll say no sweets for a week! And my mum will make me wear the leash again! Nuh-uh, we're staying right here, where it's safe."

Gla-Thon was about to say something sharp in response, but Manus cut her off by shrugging carelessly. "Alright, that's fine. The two of you can stay in here for as long as you like."

Surprised but pleased, the two girls grinned up at him. Anna was missing a front tooth, herself; Ursa was missing three. No wonder she whistled as much as she talked.

"Thanks, Manus. You're the best!" Anna chirped, her green eyes sparkling with a mischief that was entirely too familiar. Smiling down at them, Manus shut the lid of the tool chest, hiding them from view.

Arms still crossed, Gla-Thon glared at him. "What do you mean by this?" she demanded in a low voice. "We need to take them to their parents!"

"I know," Manus said evenly, picking up the iron bar that sealed the chest shut. Wordlessly, he threaded the bar through it fixtures and twisted it into place. Gla-Thon understood immediately—and so, it seemed, did Anna and Ursa. Hearing the bar sliding into place, he two girls began pounding on the lid of the chest, trying in vain to lift it. When they couldn't, they began to shout in alarm and demand that Manus let them out.

"I'll tell da that you locked us in a dirty old chest if you don't let us out right now!" Anna wailed from inside.

"I think he will understand completely," Manus called back. He bent and lifted the whole chest awkwardly up onto his shoulder, causing more shouts of alarm from the girls. They began to rock the chest as hard as they could, still demanding to be released. Manus would have stumbled and fallen, thrown off balance by the girls' fit, if Gla-Thon hadn't jumped to the rescue, catching the other end of the chest and holding it steady.

"What was it she said about a leash?" Gla-Thon grunted to her friend. "It seems like a reasonable idea."

If he hadn't been trying so hard to balance the chest on his shoulder, Manus would have laughed out loud. Struggling to hold the rocking chest up between them, they started off in the general direction of the courtyard.

And, as it happened, they didn't even need to go that far. They found Lief and Barda again, speaking to a pair of guards—likely about their missing children—long before they came near the courtyard. Finding them made Gla-Thon gasp in relief, because the thought of having to haul the very noisy chest down two flights of stairs had made her increasingly anxious.

It didn't take long for them to be noticed, either. They had only just turned into the hallway when the exhausted looking fathers looked up, alerted by the sudden sound of their daughters screaming for help and hollering about treachery. When they saw Manus and Gla-Thon stumbling down the hall toward them under the weight of a squirming, wailing tool chest, they somehow seemed even more exhausted.

"Please do not tell me our children are in that chest," Lief sighed tiredly, rubbing his hand over his face.

His two friends dropped the chest on the floor with a graceless thump, causing the girls to shriek. Gla-Thon flopped over the sealed lid, wobbling and out of breath. Even Manus, for all his extraordinary strength, was tired from that short adventure.

"The girls are in this chest," he said flatly, choosing to ignore what Lief had just said, as the chest went on thumping violently. "I'm sorry about this, but we had no other options."

"We can hardly blame you," Barda answered crisply. "I hope they didn't cause you too much trouble."

"No, not really. Although, once the girls are secured elsewhere, I'd like my tool chest back, please."

"We'll return it as soon as we can," Lief agreed, looking cheered by his friend's perpetual good attitude.

The thumping inside the chest became more desperate than before, and Ursa cried out, "Da! Open the chest! Let us out!"

"I don't think so, young lady," Barda called back, as he and Lief took hold of the metal rings on either end of the chest, and began to drag it away. "I remember what happened last time. Having my face licked by a seven-year-old is hardly on my list of things to do this day. Just wait until your mothers get a hold of you."

Obviously defeated and frightened, the girls began crying, begging their fathers to let them out so they could escape. But the two men staunchly blocked them out, and were too focused on removing the chest to look back and thank their friends properly.

All the same, Manus and Gla-Thon watched them, shaking their heads in puzzled amusement, until they had disappeared around the corner. Above them, the guards were also shaking their heads, not amused in the slightest.

"That little girl will be our queen one day," one of the guards muttered. "I don't know how I feel about that…."

"I feel perfectly confident," Gla-Thon retorted. "Anna seems like a completely normal child in every way. She will grow to be a great queen."

The guard who had spoken looked down at her uncertainly. "How can you know that?" he asked.

Gla-Thon grinned at him. "Because I was quite the same, when I was a child, and I turned out excellently. Do you not agree?"

"Oh—of course—I mean, naturally, ma'am," the guard stammered, turning red and returning to attention. "My apologies."

Pleased with herself, Gla-Thon stuffed her hands into her pockets and turned back in the direction of the damaged wall. "Come on, Manus," she called over her shoulder. "We'd better get back, before the girls cleverly escape and make a mess of your things again."

And, agreeing, Manus left the guards of a shrug and followed his friend.


	4. Some Things Never Change

Because surely, this mischievous streak they share has to have come from somewhere. I like very much to imagine that Lief's big 7 are all descendants of Adin's big 7, so…. Yep. XD

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_Some Things Never Change_

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Meanwhile, at the forge in Del, Adin gazed with pride and love over his closest friends—all of them comrades he had met on his journey, who had stood by him during that final, terrible battle on the Hira plain. Somehow, all seven of them had survived that battle. However else they felt about that, Adin just felt blessed that they had all been able to come to Del, and humbled that they had all gladly pledged their loyalty to him.

As of this morning, Adin was the king of this land—this land they had all agreed must now be called Deltora. And he had only these gathered friends to thank for it. Greel of the Jalis had believed in his crazy-sounding dream, and had taken him under his wing. Az-Zure of the Dread Gnomes had given him her own name for a title. Zillah of Rithmere, who had once tried to kill him, was now slightly afraid of him since he had spoken to a Lapis Lazuli dragon in the Shifting Sands. Samuel of Del was his best friend from childhood, and had never doubted him for a second. Melissa, leader of the Hiran people, had watched and waited for him, as her ancestors had. Good-natured Padge of Raladin had welcomed him with open arms from the beginning. And beautiful Zara of Tora had already agreed in secret to be his queen.

They were a fine band of friends, and he couldn't have done anything he had done without them. There would have been no quest, no glittering steel belt, and no freedom from the Lord of Shadows without each and every one of their varied skills and talents. And, even more than that, he had come to love each of them in his or her own way. He could no longer imagine his life without them.

"I am glad that you all were able to join me here today," he said to them, feeling inspired to make a small speech. "I know that this has been a long day for us all. It means much to me that you would make time for this."

"But of course," Melissa all but exclaimed. "You are our king now; and besides that, you are our friend. Of course we have made time for you!"

"It means much to us that you would invite us here," Zara agreed, taking his hand with a sincere smile. "Many would say it is an unusual thing for a king to do, but none of us shall complain."

"Thank you," he smiled back. "It has been so hard to get any one of you in one place all day, and I have missed you all, in spite of everything. That was why I asked—"

Adin suddenly found himself distracted by scuffling and muffled laughter from the back of the yard. He peered around his friends, trying to find the source of the noise; and everyone else quickly joined him in peering around, also distracted.

And they quickly discovered Padge and Az-Zure, using their smallness to hide behind Samuel and Greel, while they teasingly poked each other with sticks. As they were revealed and everyone stopped to stare at them in confused disbelief, the Gnome and the Ralad stopped their misbehavior briefly to look up as if they were being completely normal.

"…What?" Az-Zure demanded.

"What on earth are the two of you doing?" Adin asked, wondering why they were cutting up and acting like children when he was trying to pour his heart out in front of them.

"Nothing, nothing," Az-Zure insisted, only to jab Padge with her stick as soon as she finished speaking. Padge squeaked in surprise, and jabbed her back. Then she jabbed him, and he jabbed her—again, as if they were behaving appropriately, not caring that everyone thought they had lost their minds.

Adin suppressed a groan and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Padge and Az-Zure were very friendly, and they worked quite well together. However, when there was no urgent trouble to be addressed, the two tended to be very… Silly. Though Padge was an elder, he was astonishingly young at heart, and very observant and clever; and Az-Zure was as mischievous as a Gnome should be. So naturally, their combined efforts on the battlefield were nothing to sneeze at.

Whenever they put their heads together outside of that, though, they were just plain goofy. It was like they couldn't help themselves.

And they were still jabbing each other with sticks, like bickering school children.

"Samuel, Greel, separate them, please."

More than happy to help, the two largest and strongest of his friends nodded and pushed their sleeves up. Greel snatched Az-Zure off the ground and flung her over his shoulder as if she were a toy; she shrieked unhappily, and dropped her stick. "That is enough out of you, Gnome," he muttered as she fought for her freedom. Fought, and failed. Strong as she was, she simply couldn't wriggle from the clutches of a Jalis knight.

Stalking off in the opposite direction, Samuel had Padge by his waist, hauling the Ralad man away under his arm like a chicken. Padge just kind of hung limply in the bigger man's arm, looking disappointed but unwilling to struggle. "What is the matter with you two?" Samuel grumbled, receiving a vague shrug in response.

And so the two men deposited their friends on opposite ends of the gathering, as far from each other as possible. Az-Zure sized up her new neighbor briefly, trying to decide if it would be fun to engage, but obviously decided against it. She was standing next to fancy, dignified Melissa, now. The Hiran woman would be far less fun to poke with a stick than Padge was. Displeased, Az-Zure crossed her arms and pouted.

On the other end of the group, Padge smiled warmly up at Zillah, who frowned down at him suspiciously and nervously clutched the star pendant around her neck. As if his mischievousness was a bad omen she needed to protect herself from.

Adin shook his head after his friends… And then it dawned on him that, really, all was well and normal. With that settled, he cleared his throat.

"Now, as I was saying…"

2222222222

Several centuries later, Lief was standing in the same forge yard, looking over his own band of friends—friends who hadn't helped him create the Belt of Deltora, but to restore it. Friends who had also helped him drive the Shadow Lord out of their land. Friends who had also journeyed to Del that day to pledge their loyalty to a king they knew and trusted.

And so, not unlike Adin had done so long before, Lief surveyed his closest friends with great pride and love. Glock, the last Jalis, who hid a good heart behind his ferocity. Gla-Thon the Dread Gnome, who had taken a chance on him and would never regret it for a second. Fardeep of the Mere, who had been rescued from an enchantment worse than death. Barda, Lief's lifelong guardian and companion. Steven, the peddler from the Plains, who now had real friends for the first time in his life. Manus of Raldin, who still insisted that he owed Lief his life twice over. And Zeean of Tora, who couldn't quite find enough words of gratitude for her king's forgiveness.

And, steadfastly at his side stood Jasmine, who he found grew more and more precious to him with every day that passed.

They were a fine band of friends, and he couldn't have done anything he had done without them. There would have been no quest, no glittering steel belt, and no freedom from the Shadow Lord without each and every one of their varied skills and talents. And, even more than that, he had come to love each of them in his or her own way. He could no longer imagine his life without them.

"I'm glad that all of you could make it," he said brightly, pleased that all his friends were with him. "It's been a busy day. I was scared some of you might not be here."

Glock laughed sharply to that. "Of course we all made it! The only reason most of us are here in the first place is to celebrate _you_! Where else would we be?"

"Indeed," Zeean agreed, much more calmly. "And we were glad of the invitation. Great celebrations are all good and well, but it is a wonderful thing to be gathered here together like this."

"It's never been just us before," Steven pointed out. "We've always been together, but busy. This will be a nice change."

Jasmine tossed her head proudly. "That's what I said. But Lief almost didn't do this, because he thought you would all be too busy for him. He's entirely too nice, sometimes."

With his friends laughing and rolling their eyes at him—because it was exactly the sort of thing he would do—Lief suddenly couldn't help whining at her. "Jasmine, you said you wouldn't—"

But he was distracted from his whining by scuffling and muffled laughter from the back of the group. Jasmine, who was about to stick her tongue out at him, was also distracted.

"Who's making all that noise?" she wondered, looking around for the source of the noise, and prompting everyone else to do the same.

And they quickly discovered Manus and Gla-Thon, using their smallness to hide behind Barda and Glock, while they teasingly poked each other with sticks. As they were revealed and everyone stopped to stare at them in confused disbelief, the Gnome and the Ralad stopped their misbehavior briefly to look up as if they were being completely normal.

Suddenly, Lief felt the odd sensation that he had already lived this moment, somehow…

"What? Is there something on my face?" Gla-Thon asked. It was hard to tell if she was being serious or not.

"What are the two of you doing?" Jasmine demanded in disbelief. "Lief is _trying_ to talk to you!"

Manus scoffed. "She started it," he said, poking his stick into Gla-Thon's shoulder.

"No, _he_ started it," she said immediately, and poked her own stick into his forehead—missing his eye by a hair, and clearly not caring in the friendliest way possible.

And so the poking resumed, while everyone watched and wondered what they were looking at, exactly. The sight of a Dread Gnome and a Ralad man poking each other with sticks, as if they were silly, ordinary children, was amusing as it was uniquely bizarre. No one could tear their eyes away from the spectacle.

Hoping his smallest friends didn't plan on making this a regular thing whenever the team was gathered together, he decided to act.

"Barda, Glock, could you separate them, please?"

Those words felt oddly familiar to him, too. As if he had said them once before, and was just repeating them. It was a curious thing…

The two men nodded in agreement, and did as they were asked. Glock snatched Gla-Thon up and swung her over his shoulder, muttering at her to be quiet and stop kicking and screaming in his ear. Barda scooped Manus under his arm and dragged him off in the opposite direction, wondering out loud what was wrong with them, as his friend also kicked and screamed in vain for escape.

And again, the scene felt oddly, instantly familiar to Lief. But he couldn't understand why, and it puzzled him more and more.

So Barda placed Manus at one end of the group, right next to Zeean. She gave the little man a look, warning him not to bring a stick anywhere near her; and, as to be expected, he smiled and waved in agreement, prompting her to smile and wave back at him. Glock placed fuming, indignant Gla-Thon with a thump on the ground next to him, where he could keep an eye on her. They crossed their arms and scowled furiously at each other, until she finally pouted and looked staunchly in a different direction.

Finally, whatever _that_ had been was over. Lief cleared his throat and tried to remember where he had left off.

"Now, as I was saying…"

He suddenly froze, earning a stir of surprise and concern from his friends as a stunned look spread over his face. That was the very last straw.

"I've done this before!" he exclaimed in frustration. "I've been in _exactly_ this place and done _exactly_ these things and said _exactly_ those words! What is going on?!"

Jasmine sighed and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "Oh dear," she said. "I think he's finally lost him mind, everyone…"


End file.
